E3 2009 Opening its Doors to the Public Next June

ESA set to announce major changes to E3's format beginning next year.

There's big news today for the industry's biggest trade show -- Newsweek's N'Gai Croal is reporting that the Entertainment Software Association will announce tomorrow that E3 2009 will be undergoing some major changes from its current incarnation. The event will take place during the first week of June at the Los Angeles Convention Center and will be open to the public on Friday, June 5th and Saturday, June 6th. The event itself will begin on Tuesday, June 2nd, with the majority of the announcement filled press conferences from Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and company coming on that first day. Attendance to the event will be capped at 40,000 people, 20,000 fewer people than the attendance of this year's PAX and nearly half the amount that attended E3 2005, the last year before the event changed to its current, scaled-back 'Media & Business Summit' form.

Newsweek's source -- who is only identified as "a source close to the process" -- told them, "After vehemently opposing a bigger show three years ago -- to now go back to the board, admit a mistake, and advocate for a bigger show. It reflects well on the organization and the board to recognize they made a mistake and, regardless of how it would look publicly, go ahead and fixed [sic]."

This is certainly a major change that bodes well for the event, which many believed was becoming increasingly irrelevant and superfluous. The attendance cap will likely make it a tricky affair to get into, but avid gamers should be pleased that they have another major event that seems to be catering to them.

nice.

40 000

40 000 is not that much, I bet you some people are going for nothing! If the line up for a new system breaks records what do you think is gonna happen here. There's gonna be a line up for weeks before it opens. Riots lol well maybe not but you get my point.

I will try to go also

I can't believe this is going to happend earlier than normal. It's a giant step for ESA And E3. I might Save up to go to this thing. First one ever!. I was also invited to go to Canada For Boogie SuperStar In Montreal. But i can't got no way of getting there and how would i find it? So i have to skip it. Maybe if someone was nice enough to tell me and be there to go with me. I might have gone. but I can't I have be home for News and Prayers for someone.

cool

Awesome!

This is what everyone wanted ever since the first E3 ('94, if I'm correct). Even for the cinical in all of us there's no denying this could very well mean the rebirth of what was once the biggest gaming event around the globe.

the answer is

PAX attendance numbers

The 40,000 person limit for E3 can be interpreted in one of two reasonable ways. They either will have a limit of 20,000 people each day, which makes it the same per-day size as PAX, or it's 40,000 per day, which is more understandable for a public event being held in Los Angeles County, which has a population (approx. 10 million) that almost exceeds the entire population of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho combined (approx. 12 million). The "new" E3 will have at least the same amount of attendance draw from non-local press and other gaming fans with a few bucks to spend on a car trip or plane ride, so the latter 40,000 per-day limit seems most likely. If that's not the case, call me surprised. So, with that in mind, it could potentially exceed PAX attendence with a shorter show, if people indeed are interested in showing up.